Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Dehradun, April 16 - The Central Braille Press at the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH) is printing dummy ballot sheets for visually impaired voters. These sheets would help them locate candidates, their party symbol and position on EVMs for the May 7 Lok Sabha polls in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

These dummy ballot sheets will be dispatched to the polling booths in both states for the ready reference of the visually impaired voters.

The NIVH has also asked to print such dummy ballot sheets for the visually impaired voters of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana.

“We have been empanelled by the Election Commission of India for printing dummy ballot sheets in Braille for the states of Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Nearly 27,000 dummy ballot sheets in Braille were transported to Haryana before it went to the polls on April 10,” said Anuradha Mohit, Director, NIVH.

For the 40 parliamentary constituencies in Bihar, nearly 80,000 dummy ballot sheets would be printed and for the 80 parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, 1.60 lakh ballot sheets would be printed. The ballot sheets are being printed on 140 GSM paper in Braille 650 S-W printing press procured from Norway.

The printing press is able to print 1,000 pages per hour and for the visually impaired voters of Uttarakhand, the requirement is of 7,500 dummy ballot sheets.

The NIVH has also been entrusted with the responsibility of providing numeric stickers. “In certain booths, EVMs made before 2006 are still in use. The pre-2006 EVMs did not contain numeric listing in braille, so stickers are also being printed that would be pasted on them. These were required for the polls in Haryana,” said Lokesh Nawani, in charge, braille, NIVH.

Dehradun - The activists of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protested in front of Scholar’s Home school here on Wednesday. The ABVP workers alleged that the school management is selling books from a stall opened inside the school premises at higher prices to the parents.

The students belonging to the ABVP reached the school located at the Rajpur road and shouted slogans against the management for increase in fees and charging more on the books and stationery. The Additional District Magistrate (ADM) G S Gunawant reached the spot and held talks with the agitators and school management on the issue.

The hegemony and loot of the private schools has forced the social and political organizations to raise their voice against them. The education department has opened a complaint cell at the office of District Education Officer (DEO) Primary to register the complaints against these schools.

On the basis of these complaints the education department has given show cause notices of 40 schools of the city. The department has warned to take strict action against those schools which are not following the provisions of Right to Education (RTE).